Edgar Rice Burroughs - Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.pdf

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Jungle Tales of Tarzan
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Contents
CHAPTER
1 Tarzan's First Love
2 The Capture of Tarzan
3 The Fight for the Balu
4 The God of Tarzan
5 Tarzan and the Black Boy
6 The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance
7 The End of Bukawai
8 The Lion
9 The Nightmare
10 The Battle for Teeka
11 A Jungle Joke
12 Tarzan Rescues the Moon
1
Tarzan's First Love
TEEKA, STRETCHED AT luxurious ease in the shade of the
tropical forest, presented, unquestionably, a most alluring
picture of young, feminine loveliness. Or at least so
thought Tarzan of the Apes, who squatted upon a low-swinging
branch in a near-by tree and looked down upon her.
Just to have seen him there, lolling upon the swaying
bough of the jungle-forest giant, his brown skin mottled
by the brilliant equatorial sunlight which percolated
through the leafy canopy of green above him, his clean-limbed
body relaxed in graceful ease, his shapely head partly
turned in contemplative absorption and his intelligent,
gray eyes dreamily devouring the object of their devotion,
you would have thought him the reincarnation of some
demigod of old.
You would not have guessed that in infancy he had suckled
at the breast of a hideous, hairy she-ape, nor that in all
his conscious past since his parents had passed away in the
little cabin by the landlocked harbor at the jungle's verge,
he had known no other associates than the sullen bulls
and the snarling cows of the tribe of Kerchak, the great ape.
Nor, could you have read the thoughts which passed through
that active, healthy brain, the longings and desires
and aspirations which the sight of Teeka inspired,
would you have been any more inclined to give credence
to the reality of the origin of the ape-man. For,
from his thoughts alone, you could never have gleaned
the truth--that he had been born to a gentle English lady
or that his sire had been an English nobleman of time-honored
lineage.
Lost to Tarzan of the Apes was the truth of his origin.
That he was John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, with a seat
in the House of Lords, he did not know, nor, knowing,
would have understood.
Yes, Teeka was indeed beautiful!
Of course Kala had been beautiful--one's mother is always
that--but Teeka was beautiful in a way all her own,
an indescribable sort of way which Tarzan was just
beginning to sense in a rather vague and hazy manner.
For years had Tarzan and Teeka been play-fellows, and Teeka
still continued to be playful while the young bulls of her own
age were rapidly becoming surly and morose. Tarzan, if he
gave the matter much thought at all, probably reasoned
that his growing attachment for the young female could
be easily accounted for by the fact that of the former
playmates she and he alone retained any desire to frolic as of
old.
But today, as he sat gazing upon her, he found himself
noting the beauties of Teeka's form and features--something
he never had done before, since none of them had aught
to do with Teeka's ability to race nimbly through the lower
terraces of the forest in the primitive games of tag and
hide-and-go-seek which Tarzan's fertile brain evolved.
Tarzan scratched his head, running his fingers deep
into the shock of black hair which framed his shapely,
boyish face--he scratched his head and sighed.
Teeka's new-found beauty became as suddenly his despair.
He envied her the handsome coat of hair which covered
her body. His own smooth, brown hide he hated with a
hatred born of disgust and contempt. Years back he had
harbored a hope that some day he, too, would be clothed
in hair as were all his brothers and sisters; but of late
he had been forced to abandon the delectable dream.
Then there were Teeka's great teeth, not so large as the males,
of course, but still mighty, handsome things by comparison
with Tarzan's feeble white ones. And her beetling brows,
and broad, flat nose, and her mouth! Tarzan had often
practiced making his mouth into a little round circle and then
puffing out his cheeks while he winked his eyes rapidly;
but he felt that he could never do it in the same cute
and irresistible way in which Teeka did it.
And as he watched her that afternoon, and wondered,
a young bull ape who had been lazily foraging for food
beneath the damp, matted carpet of decaying vegetation
at the roots of a near-by tree lumbered awkwardly
in Teeka's direction. The other apes of the tribe
of Kerchak moved listlessly about or lolled restfully
in the midday heat of the equatorial jungle. From time
to time one or another of them had passed close to Teeka,
and Tarzan had been uninterested. Why was it then that his
brows contracted and his muscles tensed as he saw Taug
pause beside the young she and then squat down close to her?
Tarzan always had liked Taug. Since childhood they
had romped together. Side by side they had squatted
near the water, their quick, strong fingers ready to
leap forth and seize Pisah, the fish, should that wary
denizen of the cool depths dart surfaceward to the lure
of the insects Tarzan tossed upon the face of the pool.
Together they had baited Tublat and teased Numa, the lion.
Why, then, should Tarzan feel the rise of the short hairs
at the nape of his neck merely because Taug sat close to Teeka?
It is true that Taug was no longer the frolicsome ape
of yesterday. When his snarling-muscles bared his giant
fangs no one could longer imagine that Taug was in as
playful a mood as when he and Tarzan had rolled upon
the turf in mimic battle. The Taug of today was a huge,
sullen bull ape, somber and forbidding. Yet he and Tarzan
never had quarreled.
For a few minutes the young ape-man watched Taug press
closer to Teeka. He saw the rough caress of the huge
paw as it stroked the sleek shoulder of the she,
and then Tarzan of the Apes slipped catlike to the ground
and approached the two.
As he came his upper lip curled into a snarl, exposing his
fighting fangs, and a deep growl rumbled from his
cavernous chest. Taug looked up, batting his blood-shot eyes.
Teeka half raised herself and looked at Tarzan.
Did she guess the cause of his perturbation? Who may
say? At any rate, she was feminine, and so she reached
up and scratched Taug behind one of his small, flat ears.
Tarzan saw, and in the instant that he saw, Teeka was no
longer the little playmate of an hour ago; instead she
was a wondrous thing--the most wondrous in the world--and
a possession for which Tarzan would fight to the death
against Taug or any other who dared question his right
of proprietorship.
Stooped, his muscles rigid and one great shoulder turned
toward the young bull, Tarzan of the Apes sidled nearer
and nearer. His face was partly averted, but his keen
gray eyes never left those of Taug, and as he came,
his growls increased in depth and volume.
Taug rose upon his short legs, bristling. His fighting
fangs were bared. He, too, sidled, stiff-legged, and growled.
"Teeka is Tarzan's," said the ape-man, in the low gutturals
of the great anthropoids.
"Teeka is Taug's," replied the bull ape.
Thaka and Numgo and Gunto, disturbed by the growlings
of the two young bulls, looked up half apathetic,
half interested. They were sleepy, but they sensed a fight.
It would break the monotony of the humdrum jungle life
they led.
Coiled about his shoulders was Tarzan's long grass rope,
in his hand was the hunting knife of the long-dead father
he had never known. In Taug's little brain lay a great
respect for the shiny bit of sharp metal which the ape-boy
knew so well how to use. With it had he slain Tublat,
his fierce foster father, and Bolgani, the gorilla.
Taug knew these things, and so he came warily, circling about
Tarzan in search of an opening. The latter, made cautious
because of his lesser bulk and the inferiority of his
natural armament, followed similar tactics.
For a time it seemed that the altercation would
follow the way of the majority of such differences
between members of the tribe and that one of them would
finally lose interest and wander off to prosecute some
other line of endeavor. Such might have been the end
of it had the CASUS BELLI been other than it was;
but Teeka was flattered at the attention that was being
drawn to her and by the fact that these two young bulls
were contemplating battle on her account. Such a thing
never before had occurred in Teeka's brief life.
She had seen other bulls battling for other and older shes,
and in the depth of her wild little heart she had longed
for the day when the jungle grasses would be reddened
with the blood of mortal combat for her fair sake.
So now she squatted upon her haunches and insulted
both her admirers impartially. She hurled taunts at
them for their cowardice, and called them vile names,
such as Histah, the snake, and Dango, the hyena.
She threatened to call Mumga to chastise them with a
stick--Mumga, who was so old that she could no longer
climb and so toothless that she was forced to confine
her diet almost exclusively to bananas and grub-worms.
The apes who were watching heard and laughed.
Taug was infuriated. He made a sudden lunge for Tarzan,
but the ape-boy leaped nimbly to one side, eluding him,
and with the quickness of a cat wheeled and leaped back
again to close quarters. His hunting knife was raised
above his head as he came in, and he aimed a vicious blow
at Taug's neck. The ape wheeled to dodge the weapon
so that the keen blade struck him but a glancing blow upon
the shoulder.
The spurt of red blood brought a shrill cry of delight
from Teeka. Ah, but this was something worth while!
She glanced about to see if others had witnessed this
evidence of her popularity. Helen of Troy was never
one whit more proud than was Teeka at that moment.
If Teeka had not been so absorbed in her own vaingloriousness
she might have noted the rustling of leaves in the
tree above her--a rustling which was not caused by
any movement of the wind, since there was no wind.
And had she looked up she might have seen a sleek body
crouching almost directly over her and wicked yellow
eyes glaring hungrily down upon her, but Teeka did not look up.
With his wound Taug had backed off growling horribly.
Tarzan had followed him, screaming insults at him,
and menacing him with his brandishing blade. Teeka moved
from beneath the tree in an effort to keep close to
the duelists.
The branch above Teeka bent and swayed a trifle with the
movement of the body of the watcher stretched along it.
Taug had halted now and was preparing to make a new stand.
His lips were flecked with foam, and saliva drooled from
his jowls. He stood with head lowered and arms outstretched,
preparing for a sudden charge to close quarters.
Could he but lay his mighty hands upon that soft,
brown skin the battle would be his. Taug considered
Tarzan's manner of fighting unfair. He would not close.
Instead, he leaped nimbly just beyond the reach of Taug's
muscular fingers.
The ape-boy had as yet never come to a real trial
of strength with a bull ape, other than in play,
and so he was not at all sure that it would be safe to put
his muscles to the test in a life and death struggle.
Not that he was afraid, for Tarzan knew nothing of fear.
The instinct of self-preservation gave him caution--that
was all. He took risks only when it seemed necessary,
and then he would hesitate at nothing.
His own method of fighting seemed best fitted to his build
and to his armament. His teeth, while strong and sharp, were,
as weapons of offense, pitifully inadequate by comparison
with the mighty fighting fangs of the anthropoids.
By dancing about, just out of reach of an antagonist,
Tarzan could do infinite injury with his long,
sharp hunting knife, and at the same time escape
many of the painful and dangerous wounds which would
be sure to follow his falling into the clutches of a bull ape.
And so Taug charged and bellowed like a bull, and Tarzan
of the Apes danced lightly to this side and that,

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